The anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats fail to break through
But they did well enough at the election to make forming a new government hard
ELECTION day, September 9th, looked like a festival in Rinkeby, a largely immigrant neighbourhood of social-housing projects outside Stockholm. On the pedestrian shopping square, Somali-Swedes in niqabs and Eritrean-Swedes in leather jackets milled about between the parties’ campaign booths. A stream of voters marched towards the local school to cast their ballots. Turnout was high, said Ismahan Abdulahi, a Somali-Swedish woman canvassing for the centre-left Social Democrats.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Still standing”
From the September 15th 2018 edition
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The attack on Ukraine is part of a new era of missile warfare
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The return of Europe’s oldest scourge
Once dominant, Germany is now desperate
As an election looms its business model is breaking down